Rate Your 2018 Season Results

[andy10917]

It seems to me that over half of the Cool-Season members have completed their final apps, and the season is truly coming to a close.

Did the season meet your expectations? Please don't make this a "what I did yesterday" thread -- look back at the whole season and what your expectations were at the beginning, and what became of your expectations as the WHOLE season progressed.

What say you?

[Green]

It went well. I managed to drastically reduce Triv between Spring 2017 and Spring 2018, and while some came back this year, there's a lot less now. Due to it, I had to Spring spot reseed the beginning of this year, and it went well. The thing I did not expect was so much grass dying during the Summer, likely from the heat. Dead spots in much of the main lawn, starting in early August, but got it reseeded in late August and September for the most part. Pretty much filled in totally, except the upper side. Also did not expect the low-input area to have so much dead grass rather than dormancy. It took 3 overseeds due to washout, but I have full coverage in that area now. The winterizing window was short due to snow and rain, but I got it put down, too. The season ended about 2 weeks earlier than average. Rain or liquid precip total in the past month was around 8.5 inches, including 10 inches of snow less than 2 weeks ago...very early for that much. Overall, everything went well, and I did what I had to do to solve the problems that cropped up.

[s3_buell_]

Overall, I accomplished more than expected with less work. I learned a little about some new things too.

I've been manually picking a nutsedge spot for years and only had two plants this year. It should be done. Yea!

This was the first year really attempting to deal with yearly rust in early August. I used both corn meal and a big box store fungus spray and am pleased that I never saw any rust at all.

Still have late July dormancy on slopes that are right next to cement. My watering timing has helped a little, but I think there may be an underlying soil issue. Separate soil test in the spring next year should tell. I've switched to 1/2 inch a couple of times a week in July instead of 1 inch when needed. I had expected that the change would work better but will do this again next year.

Still have rats and moles in the neighborhood. And neighbors that don't care. They met my now very low expectations. I'll keep doing what I can on my own lot.

Still have some compacted areas that don't do well throughout the entire year. I think shampoo helps but only temporarily. Best Lawn Soil conditioner next year is likely if the lawn budget can support it.

Two renovations were successful this fall. One wasn't planned at all. I tried a few new things that were potential time savers. Scott's starter fertilizer with mesotrione instead of separate fertilizer and Tenacity was more convenient and quicker, but less flexible. Met expectations. I think next time will be separates. Spreading peat with a rake was also quicker but seemed to move seed around resulting in uneven seed distribution. Fail. Next time, I'll drop it by hand as I did before, or try a peat spreader if the job is really large. Lastly, I tried two new seed blends which I'll judge next June.

I tried plant growth regulator this year during heavy nitrogen regimen this fall. Today, I think the timing was a bad idea. I'll try PGR starting just before the spring flush and see how it goes next year. The T-Nex really worked better than I expected but I can tell that I need more experience to really understand how to best use it.

There were unexpected equipment failures. A Ryobi 2-cycle engine grenaded inside and now has zero compression and clunking noises inside. The Ryobi 40V electric motor with rechargeable battery is really convenient and usually finishes the job at hand on a single charge in a 5k ft2 yard. A 15 year old Scott's hand spreader failed so the Whizz got the call for the renovations. I thought that old spreader would out live me. The Whizz is just ok for the price. I was really hoping that my old mower would fail this year, causing the need to purchase a new HRX. But nooooooo! it ran great again. Grrrr!! LOL

After recommending aroundtheyard.com for years to my neighbors, one of them finally visited the site and acted. She's getting visible results after only changing her watering routine and cutting more often. Did I expect this after all these years? Not really, but I do keep reminding them about the site.

Spring prodiamine got skipped and, of course, much more weed pressure resulted. Much more than I thought. Late summer prodiamine knocked the volume back. Accidental "over spray" deep into the neighbors lawn worked well too.

All in all, a good year. I'm hoping that the "Off-Season: Interest in Really Learning to Read Labels Well?" thread really takes off to put the icing on the yearly cake.

[Riverpilot]

This was a difficult/strange season. I would say I didn't meet my expectations overall.

I had diseases, which I've had before, but also had thinning of certain areas of the yard. I may up the serenade applications in the front/side areas.
I also tried the fall fert program with urea for the first time, and my lawn didn't seem to respond to it as I was hoping. The grass didn't green up anywhere near as much as with milorganite. I'll have to read the forums on iron products, spray but leaning more towards spreadable.

Rain was a problem as well. It seemed to be gone for weeks and then come all at once. Throwing a few wrenches into things. I'll need to re-evaluate my lawn irrigation as a result.

[This is me]

2018 was the best season for me despite of some issues due to my lack of experience and mis-judgement. I first sprayed the Prodiamine with a backpack sprayer. All seem well until mid June. Saw some crabgrass in perfect stripes in some area. I remember spraying Quinclorac on 4th of July. With the abundant rainfall, I did not have to water the lawn as much as previous years. I was also more selective and plan out when to run the irrigation instead of setting on its own cycle. At the end of August, I found some grub trouble in some area and put down grub killer. I couldn't reseed these areas due to the fall Prodiamine app a week prior but the fall regimen really help the KGB to spread and fill in the areas. By the end of September and midway through the fall regimen, I was really happy with the lawn.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Worst year I've had since I got back into this hobby. Work travel and increasing family priorities impacted available time.

But, I did get a new triplex, so that's been fun..... too bad I can't get out and mow with it often enough

I still haven't done a final mow or winterized yet

[Pway]

Overall disappointing. My lawn was the best it’s ever been in May and June, then came tons of rain and heat. Too wet to mow and got very high. I got a fungus and lost about a third of my front lawn in a week. I had not done preventative fungicide—won’t make that mistake again. I tried preventative sprays with azoxystrobin and that, along with about a dozen 10” pots and KBG spreading, has led to about 75% recovery.

The good news is I have poa annua mostly under control (knock on wood). The bad news is I have lots of poa trivialis, which I never had until last year. It didn’t come from seed I put down but many of my neighbors don’t take care of their lawns so I’m thinking that’s where it came from. I’ve never seen, or at least never recognized triv seed heads but I’ve had some triv in flower beds so it didn’t spread into there, it had to come from seed. I need to formulate a triv strategy for the spring.

[Maizan24]

Bit of a roller-coaster. I had some wins on dealing with fungus and think I was pretty successful with the fall regimen even though this was my first year on the program. The weather was a formidable opponent though. The timing of all the rain we had didnt let me get out to mow as often as I wanted. By the time I was able to get out there the grass was starting to flop over so I wasn't get a great cut. Also timing herbicide apps was difficult because of the wet weather. Overall I'd say I learned a lot but didn't have as big an opportunity to practice it consistently enough this year.

[DevilDawg81]

I had a very busy but rewarding season. This was my first season of applying the aggressive fall nitrogen program, a full season of Serenade, second year of soil amendments and I saw a lot of positives from those. I had a front yard full of quackgrass, and I decided in about February this year I’d nuke it all starting in May, and fallow throughout summer. I got extremely lucky when we were pouring our back patio in getting that guy (I work with his wife) to let me use his sod cutter; not only was I able to transplant “good “ turf to a poor performing area, I scalped out all of our front yard and he hauled it away with no extra charge. This was a game changer, as it saved me money and shifted my plan to use sod versus doing a full blown renovation from seed. I continued to fallow for another month or so and finally laid sod in late August. I did have some patch renos that equates to roughly 200 sq feet, and those turned out well. By October I had our yard back to one of the crown jewels of the neighborhood. I learned a lot starting from watching the forsythia bloom, proper application rates, and I’ll always do the aggressive fall N plan.

[PW405]

This was a complex year IMHO. Really, only the second year that I've really had enough knowledge to know how to limp cool season turf through the hot summers, but I think my assessment of how this season went would be "anticlimactic". Allow me to explain:

- Soil remediation plan treatments were largely finished by August of this year.
- Summer rain schedule was a DREAM! Seriously - rain was perfectly spaced over the summer. Went almost 30 days without watering once. Truly a Christmas miracle.
-New mower allowed for finer control over HOC and provided cleaner cuts.
-Sprinkler coverage further optimized in anticipation of fall overseed.
-Took off work for 3 days to make sure fall overseed was complete. Seeded earlier in the season than ever before to allow KBG extra time to sprout n' pout.

Everything was looking like the stars had aligned going into seed down day. Front overseed was up first. Spent a massive amount of time on prep, hand raking, cutting, leveling, etc. After the seed was down, I had I high hopes.

Then, the bad news started:

-Brain exploding allergy attack delayed back yard seeding almost 10 days.
-Dog developed bone cancer which led to a leg amputation and additional needs.
-Almost 4" of heavy rain occurred on day 9. Made decision to not apply more seed.
-Travel schedule required I was out of town and unable to monitor progress during critical times
- House painters left equipment on a few parts of grass that ultimately killed it
- Weather. Seemed like the summer rains transitioned into chronic overcast just when the sprouted fescue and KBG needed some direct sunlight the most. At one point the TV weatherman stated "The last 30 days have seen less than 45% sunlight during the daylight hours.
-Discovered a sprinkler zone developed a leak which lead to less use.
-Fescue seed was 1 year old and germination rates seemed lower than last year, so I should have applied more seed in retrospect.

Looking back on the season, I'm more confident in my skills than ever. However, I think the lessons of this fall were a reminder that no matter one's skill level, sometimes mother nature & lady luck have other plans for you.

Overseed results were OK. I do in fact have a some KBG growing now and the weather has transitioned to DRY, cold, and sunny. Ideal conditions for introducing minor drought stressing along with "deep and infrequent" irrigation cycles. Roughly 4 weeks to growth stoppage.

Here's to hoping the KBG rhizomes surprise me next spring. C'mon little buddies, fill in those patchy spots!!

[craigdt]

Final Score: 6 out of 10
-5 for massive grub damage and not realizing it soon enough
-2 for fungus damage
-1 for another year of fighting Little Barley
+3 for fixing my water volume issues
+1 for having grass at the end of the year

[kentster]

2018 was my first year on this forum and a year for me to learn patience. No quick fixes for a lawn long neglected. My goals were focused on learning as much as possible, getting a soil plan in place and working the top of the pyramid for weeds (broadleaf and CCO). Overall, I am pretty happy with what was accomplished. A big challenge was also dealing with all the rain this season.

• New lawn tractor with more effective mulching capability. Mulched a lot of leaves.

• Pretty much eliminated all of the easy weeds with 2,4D and then realized the actual scope of the weed problem.

• Soil testing and started the remediation plan

• Learned to mix and apply KH & BLSC (twice)

• Attacked poa using Tenacity with some success until my wife complained about the white spots.
  (I told her that Andy said it will go away in 2 weeks--she'll never listen to Andy again )

• Applied prodiamine in late August to hopefully help with the poa next season (stretch goal!)

• Ended the year with a single application of Urea (2lbs/k) and hope that I got the timing right. Maddening! Maybe I'll try the long term version next year

• Finally, learned to have some discipline about keeping track of all of this in a lawn journal and also to not worry about doing everything in one year

[rucraz2]

This was my first season jumping into this larger yard. Previous owners always had someone fertilize. A LOT! So expectations were high from the neighbors. I had a lot of grass that didn't wake up. Not thatch. But a lot of dead grass under the canopy. I did a light detach with a pull behind rake, but I think it needed more. I started off strong with applying rgs and air8 with my prodiamine at low doses and neighbors were impressed. Then fertilized late June and that was it. I mowed at 3.75 all summer and tried getting my sprinklers figured out. But mid July it started to diminish. My other neighbors ( typical "Scott's" followers) still fertilized and cut short and theirs looked better than mine. With only one having irrigation. So that was very frustrating. Then I got into it with the wife about lawn care, which I didn't think I even did a fraction of what I wanted to. So said the hell with it and didn't put anything else down the rest of the year besides a dose of FAS and kelp help and bslc to the front. Which held on ok. But my back yard looks like it went dormant and never came back. The best part of my back yard was where we killed a section with a 75ft slip and slide and I scalped it. That part came back and is the best part of the back..? So no fall fertilizer or winterizer. I did keep going with my dogs 500ft pen just to show the wife what a cared for lawn can look like. And mowed at 1.25." So I'm really anxious for what spring brings. Before the snow flew here a few weeks ago. My back yard looked completely dormant still.

[northeastlawn]

Late reply for me, but have to say I was kind of disappointed. I'd say a C+ just because I kept the new KBG lawn a live through the 1st summer.

It was a combination of hard luck weather wise and mistakes on my part. I was coming off a full KBG reno year the fall before, so was expecting a lot, Tenacity treatments and weather seemed to hamper the spreading I epxected.

The year started slow slow with 30-40deg in April, Spring didn't even arrive until May 1st. Everything was really late.

Then due errors on my part with the reno, I had a ton of POA in the spring, that might actually be Triv, I'll know this spring. I either have a bad batch of Tenacity (which is seeming more and more likely over 2 years) or it just didn't do a great job marking out and killing the POA and Triv. I may have mature POA Annua that doesn't die off as easily as some people claim.

The Spring Tenacity treatments never really took out the POA (it could be Triv) and hampered spring spreading. The spring was hot early and we had mini heat waves in May and I ended up watering more than I'd like to earlier in the year.

Finally I tried to putting down biweekly serenade apps, but they just didnt seem to starve off the lawn disease I got from the hot summer we had. I had to resort to scotts disease-ex a few times. The die off could have been POA dyeing from the summer or disease, in either case i had some of the reno die off mid summer.

Lastly the fall was still very hot when I started the fall fertilizer routine, the fall weather never seemed to hit us until October, and then we got hit with a lot of rain. It seemed like i had POA that made it through the summer (and my 0.5" bi weekly waterings) so the Tenacity treatments I tried didn't help the lawn to spread much in the fall.

So not what I expected :-)

I am hoping to learn from last year and to better time the Tenacity apps this spring. The lawn will be a year older and hopefully the pre-M will take out some of the POA Annua. I will water 1" once a week this year if I can.

My biggest take away from last year is that a lot of my front and back get more sun in the spring, and in the fall the angle of the sun changes and I get mostly shade, any spreading I get will be in the spring and not the fall. Any over-seeds for the front hell strips have to be done in the spring.

Any over-seed of the backyard will have to be adding more bewitched to the mix, Im at 25% right now, but I would be hard pressed to do a an over-seed, I'd rather take out the pod-annua, and the pre-m apps seem more important.

[flyingfish88]

This season has certainly exceeded my expectations, mostly in the form of knowledge I have learned from this site. My entire thoughts on yard care changed after reading this site and getting help from so many members. I only joined mid-summer, but that allowed me to do a ton of work on the yard that I wouldn’t have done before and had pretty good results. I was able to:

1) Learn about tenacity and remove a majority of the nimble will that was invading the yard
2) Finally learn to overseed properly with irrigation, peat moss and paying attention to seed selection
3) Get great insight into my soil and begin a plan to improve it further
4) Identify additional problematic weeds in the yard (stilt grass, chickweed, wild violet) and plan to address for 2019
5) Cancel the 2nd half of my lawn service for 2018 as I took over the work and not renew for 2019!

Have a ton of work to do in 2019 on further improvements and weed removal and already looking forward to getting back to work in the early spring.


Here is the yard after removing a ton of nimble will:



Here is a month later after over seeding:

[Maizan24]

Nice turn around flyingfish!

[greenrebellion]

My goal for this season was:

Backyard - completed a renovation. Reno went well, lots of rain thinned out certain areas, but nothing so devastating that a Philes regimen in Spring can't fix.

Front:
Front was renovated in 2017. Had some grassy weeds to deal with including Triv. Completed 2 apps of Certainty and a third in select areas. In hindsight, should've blanket sprayed the third app but it seemed to remove some of the spots of Triv I had. We'll see what it looks like next Spring as it always greens up first.

Positives:
Front has turned into a very thick lawn.
Minimal weed pressure
Three apps of Prodiamine was extremely effective against Poa annua and other weeds
Fall Urea had it growing rapidly and greened up nicely
No rust pressure this year - first time ever!

Downside:
Used a faulty sprayer with Triclopyr which resulted in me killing off two decent sized chunks of lawn (1ft circles)
Dealt with some sort of leaf spot all year despite frequent and consistent Serenade apps...this made it so that the grass never quite looked as good, green and healthy as it otherwise could have.
Grass doesn't seem to respond well to Milorganite. It does not green up even after heavy doses but synthetic works amazing and quick. Need to continue to build up soil microorganisms over time.

Overall, B-. Plenty of room for improvement.

[LadyAnglesey]

Really thrilled with the way my renovation from warm season to cool season went. Smoked it, scalped it, tilled it with peat moss. Seeded it.

Then...the monsoons came just after I seeded. I'd repatch and 2 days later -- with absolutely no rain in the forecast -- another monsoon would hit. We got about 11 inches in a 20 hour period, non-stop. I wanted to cry. This happened about 4 times in a month. I patched and patched and patched.

Then slowly, ever so slowly...progress. The baby grass came in white, pink, and purple from the heavy doses of Tenacity at seeding. Then about a month after seeding, I gave it a first mowing and it immediately began hardening off and the blades thickened and matured. There were many days you couldn't have comforted me at all. I worried that I'd wasted money, time, and aggravation on this mess. But baby, look at her now!

Before and After photo below, about the same time of year 12 months apart.

[llO0DQLE]

There were many days you couldn't have comforted me at all. I worried that I'd wasted money, time, and aggravation on this mess.

You should try topdressing with sawdust. It would make that lawn even nicer.